Lima Syndrome
by CreativeReading
Summary: Loki kidnaps Darcy in an attempt to regain the scepter. Darcy does her best to invoke sympathy in her captor.
1. Chapter 1

**Lima Syndrome**

**Author's Note- I do not own anything from Marvel. I can't wait until Thor 2 comes out, so here is a little project I worked on in the meantime. Each chapter is headed by a quote by Tom Hiddleston from an interview about Loki and how much he enjoyed playing the character**

**Ch. 1**

**_"Loki is the incarnation of the darkest aspects of human nature. He is jealousy. He is pride and ambition."-_**** Tom Hiddleston on Loki**

Darcy's feet were killing her. They hurt for a good cause, but they still hurt. She was wearing slinky spike heels that matched her little black dress perfectly. She was on her first date with Clint and she wanted everything to go just right.

It took Darcy months to get this date set up. She had followed Jane to New York when they were both recruited by S.H.I.E.L.D. Tony Stark had ceded several floors of his building over to S.H.I.E.L.D. to create a type of permanent base. His tower even got renamed the "Avengers" Tower, although he began ranting and muttering whenever he heard someone use that phrase. When Darcy had first met Clint at the Tower, she had spent a week and a half shamelessly flirting with him. He was at least a decade older than her, but that didn't really matter to her.

Her campaign to get him to take her out for coffee abruptly ended with him being sent away on a two month mission to Uruguay. Then, he was back for three days before leaving once again, this time to a tiny town in Russia. She despaired of getting any traction with him. She was actually shocked when he came back from his trip with a chintzy Russian nesting doll as a souvenir for her. Wrapped around the innermost doll was a note. "Let me take you out for dinner tonight- 7 o'clock- I'll meet you at your place."

She didn't need to ask how he knew where she lived. He was a master spy after all. She had wanted to live in the Tower like everyone else, but Stark was still converting the conference rooms over to apartments, so, at the moment, S.H.I.E.L.D. was renting a tiny studio a few blocks away for her. She was grateful for it; it sure beat living out of a trailer in New Mexico. Jane was lucky, though. Her work on the creation of a stable Einsten-Rosen Bridge to link Asgard and Earth was considered top priority, so she got one of the first converted apartments in the Tower. Not that she ever used it. She practically lived in her lab.

"Penny for your thoughts," Clint whispered in her ear, bringing her back to the present. They were only a block from her apartment. Clint had insisted on walking her back at the end of the night and Darcy knew that they were at that awkward part of a first date where she would be expected to invite him up for coffee, for drinks, for whatever would happen next. She'd been burned before by moving too fast in relationships, but she felt her breath catch as she looked up at his rugged profile.

"I was just thinking . . . ," she started, when she was cut off by Clint's phone.

"Sorry, I gotta take it; it's S.H.I.E.L.D."

Of course. Once again, S.H.I.E.L.D. was interfering with her love life. They were probably going to send him off to Madagascar or somewhere equally as remote.

Clint swore under his breath. "What is it?" Darcy asked, concerned by his pained expression. "He's escaped," he replied, clenching his fists.

He. No need for a name. The same man who still gave Clint, a trained agent and ruthless assassin, nightmares.

"Can you get back to your apartment alright? I need to get back to the Tower right now."

"Yeah, yeah. Sure; go."

"I'll call you," Clint shouted over his shoulder as he jogged away.

"That's what they all say," Darcy said softly under her breath.

A few seconds later, she felt a hand on her shoulder. She smiled. "I knew you'd be back for a good night kiss," she said as she turned around.

Only it wasn't Clint. Dressed impeccably in an expensive black suit with a long emerald green scarf, was Loki.

"Really? You've got to be kidding me!"

"That was hardly the response I was expecting, Darcy Lewis."

She looked up at him. He was at least a head taller than her even with the heels she was wearing. Her mind was racing. There could be no good reason for him being here.

"I was expecting abject terror. Do you know who I am? Do you have even the faintest inkling of what I could do to you?"

The words came out slowly, in a whisper, almost seductively, but the intention was to terrify and it worked.

Ever since Loki was sent back to Earth by Odin as part of his punishment, Darcy had been worried about running into him. Luckily, he was imprisoned in another part of the Tower and she had never met him face to face. Although his magic had been bound by Odin, everyone knew he was still highly dangerous.

"You are going to be blessed, my dear Darcy. I will use you to fulfill my true purpose of ruling this pathetic planet."

"I don't think taking me as a hostage will be very helpful. Look, you got out of the Tower, what, like ten minutes ago? At this point, everyone is starting to assemble and coordinate to try to find you. If you try to escape now, you're golden. But, if you try to drag my sorry self along, I'll just slow you down and you'll get caught."

Loki paused briefly and contemplated her words. "You may very well have a point there, my dear." With a small nod, he disappeared into the night. Even magically bound, he was very stealthy.

Darcy ran back to her apartment, praying that she would make it without stumbling in her heels. Once she was inside with the door locked, she called Clint and got his voicemail.

"Clint, it's Darcy. Loki nearly kidnapped me on my way back to my apartment. You've got to get over here right now."

Darcy immediately kicked off her heels and shed her dress. In no time, she had changed into jeans, a sweater and tennis shoes. Date clothes were great and all, but they were horrible in emergency situations. Darcy sat down on the couch and shivered, shock finally starting to set in.

A few minutes later, there was a knock on her door. She opened it up and saw Clint, in his full Hawkeye gear. She started to shake and cry. She hugged him with all her might. "He, he was there," she stuttered. He lifted up her chin with one finger. Tears were streaming down her face as he kissed her gently. All of a sudden, the kiss deepened and became punishing and brutal. Darcy let go of him and began to push against his chest to no avail. Clint grabbed the back of her head, twisting and jerking her hair and held her tightly in a vicelike grip.

She looked up and saw blue-grey eyes change to light green and Clint's face shimmer away leaving Loki's in its place. A malevolent grin spread across his face.

"I changed my mind."

That's when everything went black.


	2. Chapter 2

**Ch. 2**

**_"That's what's interesting about this character; he's constantly kind of dancing on this tightrope of the light and the dark."_**** –Tom Hiddleston on Loki**

She woke up groggy, like after a night of taking cold medicine. The first thing she did was check her head to make sure she didn't have any bumps or bruises. She couldn't feel anything, so she guessed Loki must have used some other means of knocking her out. She checked her pockets, but her phone was gone.

She wasn't bound in any way; which meant that he didn't view her as any type of a threat. Not that she would be. Even without all of his magical powers, he was still inhumanly strong, completely resistant to bullets, and immortal.

"I see you've awoken." Loki loomed over her and she sat up gingerly.

"Yeah, a little worse for wear. By the way, have you ever heard of Lima Syndrome?"

Loki cocked his head to the side, "No, what do you mean?"

"Never mind, so, what's up with the sleeping spell? I thought that you were magically. . . impotent?"

Loki raised an eyebrow.

"Let me rephrase that. I thought you didn't have any more magical powers."

"A sleeping spell is hardly on the scale of teleportation. It's actually used most often on oneself as a sleep aid. I merely modified slightly to fit another person. It hardly takes any magical power at all. Odin would never think of taking it away from me," Loki said with a smirk.

"Why am I on a bed?" Darcy asked suspiciously. It looked like they were in a room that was a cross between a hotel room and an underground bunker.

"You were unconscious. Would you have rathered that I dropped you on the ground? You needn't try to project an air of false modesty. You were rather wanton earlier, were you not?"

"You tricked me into thinking you were Clint."

"Yes, Hawkeye, a man you hardly know. How very indiscriminate of you, Darcy." The way he narrowed his eyes and the way his voice was thick with emotion unsettled her.

"Wait, how did you do the illusion? What's the use of taking away your magic if you can do all that?"

"Again, Odin's view of magic is all lightening bolts and raw power. He has never had an appreciation for the finer points of magic. Subtle tricks of light and shade can often do more damage than grandiose displays of force."

"So what's the point of all this?"

"I'm not telling you anything, you silly mortal." He looked down at her indulgently, like one might to a child.

"You are all alone; you don't even have henchmen. By the way, how can you even be a supervillain without henchmen?"

"I am not a villain; I'm a king," Loki snarled.

"Yes, a king who's all alone. Look, who else are you going to tell? You know you want to go on one of those epic rants of yours. Go ahead; tell me all about your glorious purpose in life."

"Fine," he huffed, "if you must know, I will exchange you for the scepter. It is still being held in the Tower. With that, I will be able control every human I come in contact with. They will kneel before me and I will be their ruler." Loki's eyes glazed over as he pictured his triumph in his head.

"So, you're doing this to rob people's free will from them and make them treat you as their king?"

"Precisely."

"Well, that's useless. Look, your end goal seems to be to make people into toy soldiers. It's ridiculous. You're obviously able to make illusions. If you want a group of people to blindly follow you, why don't you just conjure up a herd of faceless illusions to follow you about? One real person, willingly following you is worth a million lifeless zombies. Can you get anyone, anyone at all, to really follow you?" Darcy took a deep breath and continued. "I have an idea. Pitch me," Darcy sat cross-legged on the bed leaning forward a bit.

"Pitch you?"

"Yes, pitch me, convince me that you are worthy of being followed. If you can't get one pathetic, stupid mortal girl to follow you willingly, what kind of hope do you have to get the whole world?"

Loki looked at her blankly, truly at a loss for words.

"That's what I thought. Let me guess, you didn't even want to snatch me originally; that wasn't the plan, was it?"

"No, I had thought of taking Jane, but she's not left that blasted lab in days. I had no hope of getting to her."

"Of course, it's much better to kidnap Thor's girlfriend, the brilliant scientist, instead of just plain old me, the assistant. You know, that was Clint and I's first date. It's not as though we're even really going out. You really don't have a lot of leverage in this situation. There's no way they'd exchange a scepter for me. Hell, I'd hardly rate a venti latte." That had come out a lot more bitter than Darcy had intended.

"What are you ranting on about?" Loki was starting to be concerned about her mental state.

"You really should've listened to me. I'm a bad choice as a hostage."

"I am beginning to see your point."


	3. Chapter 3

**Ch. 3**

**_" . .. maybe, if someone can actually get through the sort of leather and the metal, this sort of shell of anger that he has, that maybe they can like, give him a hug" –_**** Tom Hiddleston on Loki, when asked if Loki could ever be turned to the good side * **

"You've read my file?" Loki asked incredulously.

"Don't get too full of yourself; I read everyone's file. It's one of the few perks of being a lowly assistant. So, what was up with that last attempt at an invasion?" Darcy asked as she grabbed the last piece of pizza, sitting across from Loki. He had left her for an hour to "procure food" as he put it and came back with a truly mouth-watering pie. She had done her level best to escape from the windowless room during his absence, but she guessed that he had used some sort of magical means to reinforce the doors and locks.

"Whatever do you mean?" Loki was rubbing his temples. This girl was infuriating. She never stopped talking. They had been there for hours and the one time she was quiet was when she was eating. And yet, he had to admit, even if only to himself, that she was right. He was all alone. He hadn't really talked to anyone for months and months. He had thought of letting her go once he realized that she was right, that he'd never be able to exchange the scepter for her. Something, though, held him back.

"What I mean is, you call yourself the God of Lies, the Master Manipulator and your grand plans for taking over the Earth involved bringing a massive army into a populated, civilian area? It was a ham-fisted attempt at best."

"Well, it was not entirely my choice," Loki admitted. He thought back to the last invasion. If he were honest with himself, it had seemed like an ungainly plan at best. He didn't like relying on the Chitauri and brute force was never his forte.

"See, I knew it. Didn't seem like you at all." Darcy grinned triumphantly, and Loki gave in to his irritation.

"And what do you know of me?" he growled.

"Like I said, I read your file. I was there firsthand for the Destroyer bit; don't forget that. Lying to your brother about Odin's death, taking the throne in Asgard, manipulating Laufry and killing him, now that's the trickery that we expect from the Loki we all know and love."

"Know and love?" Loki's head reared back at the phrase.

"Figure of speech, don't get too excited. Anyhow, those actions seemed understandable. Twisted, but understandable. But once you got to Earth, you went off the deep end. You definitely weren't trying to conquer it your way."

"And how would I have tried to conquer Earth 'my way'?" Loki's interest was piqued.

"Well, I studied Political Science in college. Look at your assets. You would have used them to your advantage."

"Such as?" Loki leaned in.

"Well, you are a trickster, the most accomplished liar ever, right?"

"I have been told so," Loki said with a smirk.

"Well, why even try an invasion? You seem far too clever for that."

"What would you suggest?"

"Instead of trying to dismantle the entire world's governments, use them to your advantage. Keep them in place, just installing yourself at the top of the pyramid." Darcy's hands fluttered as she tried to illustrate her point.

"Intriguing idea, go on." Loki tried to control the grin that was forming.

"That way, instead of dealing with the billions of people on Earth, you just need to keep less than two hundred leaders in line."

"And how, specifically, would I do that?"

"Well . . ." Darcy stopped and pulled back a bit. This was no late night theorizing with her former classmates over endless cups of coffee. She suddenly realized she was giving military advice to a homicidal terrorist. "You know, this is all theoretical, right?'

"No, no, my dear Darcy, your counsel has been incredibly useful. I am eager to implement your suggestions. My first attempt to take over the Earth was thwarted in no small part because I lacked sufficient knowledge of it. However, you are a wealth of practical information. And here I was beginning to think that taking you was a mistake."

Darcy gulped. She had hoped that talking to him would endear her to him, so that he wouldn't want to kill her. She felt like she overshot the mark a bit. She decided to change tactics.

"Why do this?" she asked.

"Why do what?"

"Why be the king of the world? What's the purpose?" Darcy pled, looking him in his eyes.

"I was born to rule."

"Okay, that's just a circular argument. I know that you're smarter than that. Is it to prove something to Thor, or your father?"

Loki's eyes narrowed. "Careful, mortal. You are treading on dangerous ground."

"But why is it dangerous? What power do they still hold over you?"

"Odin lied to me for a thousand years! Do you have any idea what that is like?" Loki shouted, slamming his fist on the table, his voice filled with pain.

"No, I really don't. I have absolutely no idea how painful it would be to have someone I love betray me like that," Darcy said in a soft, calming voice.

"I do not love Odin." Loki sneered quietly and looked away.

"Of course you do. If you didn't, it wouldn't hurt so much."

Loki looked over at her, eyes wide.

"Have you ever heard of the Looking Glass theory?" Darcy asked.

Loki shook his head, perplexed.

"Okay, so it means that our self-worth is based on our perception of what we think others think of us. The problem with that is that our perceptions are often faulty and flawed. What if your perceptions of Thor and Odin's views of you are completely off-base? What if you instead believed that you were truly and deeply loved by your family?"

"And they showed their love with lies and deception?" Loki asked cuttingly.

"Loki, you were with them for two thousand years. You are ridiculously intelligent. While they may have been able to hide the origin of your birth, do you really think that they could have fooled you about their feelings for you for so long? Either you are an idiot and they were able to pretend to love you for a millennium or you are the cunning trickster who knew he was loved by his family."

"You are preying on my vanity with your flattery, mortal."

"Is it working?" Darcy asked with a smile.

"A little," Loki admitted ruefully. "What you are saying does actually make some sense."

"What happened when you got back to Asgard?" Darcy asked. She knew the answer, but she wanted to hear it from Loki.

"I was imprisoned for a time. There was a trial. Odin could have sentenced me to death; the Jotuns were baying for my blood, but instead, he ordered me to return here and help rebuild what I had destroyed."

"So, he showed mercy to you, even though it cost him politically?"

"Yes, I suppose so."

"You know, Loki, all real love is sacrificial in nature. Odin showed his love for you the only way he could, by sacrificing his political power to save you."

"I, I hadn't thought of it that way," Loki stammered.

"So, knowing that they love you, can you forgive them? Can you give up all of this striving and just accept their love for you? Can you give up this anger?"

"It feels as though anger is all that I have," Loki said looking away. He felt something crumble inside of him and it scared him. Some wall, some type of protection around his soul just giving way.

Darcy got off the chair and walked over to him, kneeling down to be at eye level with him. "What has it gotten you? Nothing. There's a way back. A way back to people who love and care for you. You can do this."

He looked up at her, eyes shiny with unwept tears. "It's too late. It's far too late."

"No, when there's love, it's never too late. There's always another chance," Darcy insisted. Loki began to sob quietly. "It's okay, it's okay." Darcy said as she leaned over and awkwardly hugged him. "You don't have to go on like this. We'll figure something out."

"We?" Loki asked; his first instinct was to push her away, but he couldn't remember the last time someone hugged him. His mother, perhaps? He leaned in, allowing himself a moment of comfort.

"I told you. One person, willing following you, is worth a million soulless drones. You don't have to be alone in this. We'll get through this together."

Darcy took a deep breath. "Now, we'll eventually need to get back to the Tower before the Avengers come howling in here, guns blazing. We'll figure out some cover story about how you got out."

"Can I have my phone back now?" Darcy asked, arm outstretched.

"So, you can call your precious Avengers?" he asked as he handed it over to her.

"No, so I can do this. Now, dry your tears, smile and look up," she said as she moved to lean her cheek against his and took a self-portrait of them.

She looked down at her phone. "This is so going on Facebook."

And that is how Darcy and Loki became friends.

* * *

*All Hiddleston quotes in the story headings are from the Pop Sugar interview posted on Youtube on April 25, 2012

**Author's note-I hope you liked my first Darcy and Loki fic. Let me know how I did. Although I love, love, love them as a couple, I wanted to try something out as friends.**

**Updated A/N- Because of some wonderful reviews and encouragement from the readers, I've written three more stories in this series. The next one is "Stockholm Syndrome". It looks into how Darcy and Loki transition from friends to something more. Let me know if you like it.**

* * *

**A/N - Reviews are the sweetest gifts that readers can give. Thank you so much for them! They literally make my day!**


End file.
